Cross-Border Narratives and Life Writing: Émile Verhaeren by Stefan Zweig and its English Translation in Wartime

Abstract

In 1910, the young Austrian writer Stefan Zweig dedicated a biographical study to the internationally acclaimed Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren. As part of Zweig's international publishing strategy, the study was translated into French and published in Paris a few months before it came out in its original language, German. An English translation was intended for publication at the same time, but was delayed until November 1914, when the First World War was to separate Verhaeren and Zweig forever. Zweig's biography permitted him to define his own European and cosmopolitan ideals through Verhaeren's life narrative. This article shows that one and the same text of life writing can be appropriated through national(ist) and cosmopolitan lenses within the context of ideological and political agendas. Zweig's biography presents Verhaeren as a ‘New European’, but at the same time as ‘part and parcel of German culture’. The publication of the English translation by Jethro Bithell in 1914 provoked criticism in the British press that was directed against Zweig's nationally biased perception and his alleged closeness to the Belgian poet. The example illustrates how claims of cosmopolitan openness are not always incompatible with a national or patriotic agenda. It also qualifies Zweig's reputation as the epitome of Europeanism and pacifism by providing new insight into his ideas before 1914.